EricHaas
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2001
- Messages
- 667
And this is what happened...
I was at a local electronics store looking to buy some computer parts and I heard over the PA that Bose was giving a Home Theater demo in the "Bose Sound Room." So I said what the hey, and I stopped by, grabbed a "ticket," and went on in. The presentation was a slide show and accompanying sound through the Bose Lifestyle home theater system. They did a good job of marketing the system, and it all sounded reasonably good considering it was carefully designed to emphasize the strenths of the system. They had their cubes disguised behind large shells to look like big speakers, whereupon they proceeded to remove the shells at the end while everyone (present company excluded) sat in awe that the sound wasn't *really* coming from tower sized speakers. Never mind that almost anyone would be fooled into thinking that *any* brand of small speakers sound like large speakers without an actual side by side comparison. Even then, without considering base extension, the difference can be subtle.
Speaking of base extension, the Bose rep showed the audience how their "base module" was designed to put out base so that it sounded if it was coming from all over. In other words, Bose apparently invented the fact that low frequency sound is non-directional. I just thought you all should know that, because there is a lot of misinformation floating around here.
Anyway, on to the *really* amusing part. During the demo, the spotlight shone on the Bose "receiver" - the sleak, silvery electronic hub (includes DVD player) for the lifestyle system. This hub apparently costs about $2000, as it is the only difference between the Lifestyle system ($3500) and their $1500 Acoustimass 15 system. Based on some questions I asked, I ascertain it has the feature set of $150 Aiwa unit.
After the demo was over, I strayed to the back of the room while everyone was filing out. There was an alcove blocked from view where the demonstator was while the demo went on. There I found an equipment rack which consisted of 5 components. One was definitely an amp, another a pre-amp. The third was a CD/DVD player of some kind. Another may have been an external decoder. Still another was an EQ. I didn't have time to look at the brand names before the Bose guy told me that I was in a "restricted area," but I did see that none were Bose brand, though there was a sticker on each that said "Do Not Touch! Property of Bose." The amp and preamp had a brand name starting with "K" (which I saw from a distance while leaving), and were very heavy duty units with front handles and massive heatsinks. This appeared to be a $7500-$15000 equipment rack based on my somewhat limited knowledge of separates.
Anyway, long story short, I asked the guy if the receiver shown as part of the Lifestyle system had been used in the demo. He said no, that other equipment had been used for "ease of use." He said there were "special technical requirements" for a demo of that type, but that the electronics didn't make a difference in the sound anyway. He said that that receiver would give me the same sound.
I chuckled and went home.
I was at a local electronics store looking to buy some computer parts and I heard over the PA that Bose was giving a Home Theater demo in the "Bose Sound Room." So I said what the hey, and I stopped by, grabbed a "ticket," and went on in. The presentation was a slide show and accompanying sound through the Bose Lifestyle home theater system. They did a good job of marketing the system, and it all sounded reasonably good considering it was carefully designed to emphasize the strenths of the system. They had their cubes disguised behind large shells to look like big speakers, whereupon they proceeded to remove the shells at the end while everyone (present company excluded) sat in awe that the sound wasn't *really* coming from tower sized speakers. Never mind that almost anyone would be fooled into thinking that *any* brand of small speakers sound like large speakers without an actual side by side comparison. Even then, without considering base extension, the difference can be subtle.
Speaking of base extension, the Bose rep showed the audience how their "base module" was designed to put out base so that it sounded if it was coming from all over. In other words, Bose apparently invented the fact that low frequency sound is non-directional. I just thought you all should know that, because there is a lot of misinformation floating around here.
Anyway, on to the *really* amusing part. During the demo, the spotlight shone on the Bose "receiver" - the sleak, silvery electronic hub (includes DVD player) for the lifestyle system. This hub apparently costs about $2000, as it is the only difference between the Lifestyle system ($3500) and their $1500 Acoustimass 15 system. Based on some questions I asked, I ascertain it has the feature set of $150 Aiwa unit.
After the demo was over, I strayed to the back of the room while everyone was filing out. There was an alcove blocked from view where the demonstator was while the demo went on. There I found an equipment rack which consisted of 5 components. One was definitely an amp, another a pre-amp. The third was a CD/DVD player of some kind. Another may have been an external decoder. Still another was an EQ. I didn't have time to look at the brand names before the Bose guy told me that I was in a "restricted area," but I did see that none were Bose brand, though there was a sticker on each that said "Do Not Touch! Property of Bose." The amp and preamp had a brand name starting with "K" (which I saw from a distance while leaving), and were very heavy duty units with front handles and massive heatsinks. This appeared to be a $7500-$15000 equipment rack based on my somewhat limited knowledge of separates.
Anyway, long story short, I asked the guy if the receiver shown as part of the Lifestyle system had been used in the demo. He said no, that other equipment had been used for "ease of use." He said there were "special technical requirements" for a demo of that type, but that the electronics didn't make a difference in the sound anyway. He said that that receiver would give me the same sound.
I chuckled and went home.
